FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has criticised businessman Ulick McEvaddy for using simplistic arguments to back his call to reject the Lisbon Treaty.
Mr Kenny, who was speaking at a meeting on the treaty in Castlebar, Co Mayo, used the speech to challenge some of the objections that were raised by Mr McEvaddy, who has long been associated with Fine Gael.
He did not specifically name Mr McEvaddy but it was clear that he was referring to the aviation entrepreneur in his comments. On Sunday, Mr McEvaddy gave public backing to the No campaign of Libertas, the group founded by Galway businessman Declan Ganley.
He criticised the treaty for being "unintelligible drivel" and for what he said was its potential to undermine Ireland's low corporate tax regime.
Mr Kenny called on opponents of the treaty to focus their comments on the actual provisions rather than unrelated issues.
"Calling on people to reject it purely on the grounds that it is structured as a set of amendments to previous treaties is a simplistic argument. Equally, to claim that the ratification of the treaty will threaten Ireland's corporate tax rate is just not true," said the Fine Gael leader.
Separately, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern last night contended that the treaty was a "modest one" that did not propose radical change.
Speaking alongside Prof Brigid Laffan and Fine Gael MEP Maireád McGuinness at a meeting in Dundalk, Co Louth, Mr Ahern said that the treaty's magnitude was far less than previous treaties that introduced the euro and established the single market.
He claimed that opponents of the treaty were making outlandish claims. "They suggest that it ends our control over our national taxation policy. It does not. They are suggesting that this treaty hands over policy on foreign direct investment to the European Commission. It does not. They suggest it will put an end to future referendums on EU treaties. It does not," he said.
Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald claimed that attempts were being made by senior figures within the EU Commission and parliament to suppress information from the Irish electorate in advance of the referendum in June.
Speaking in the European Parliament yesterday, Ms McDonald said: "Offers by commissioners to tone down or delay decisions or letters to committees within the parliament urging them not to deal with issues which could be controversial in Ireland are an affront to democracy."
